INTP Personality (“The Logician”)

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.

Albert Einstein

The INTP personality type is fairly rare, making up only three percent of the population, which is definitely a good thing for them, as there’s nothing they’d be more unhappy about than being "common". INTPs pride themselves on their inventiveness and creativity, their unique perspective and vigorous intellect. Usually known as the philosopher, the architect, or the dreamy professor, INTPs have been responsible for many scientific discoveries throughout history.

The Unexamined Life Is Not Worth Living

INTPs are known for their brilliant theories and unrelenting logic – in fact, they are considered the most logically precise of all the personality types.

They love patterns, and spotting discrepancies between statements could almost be described as a hobby, making it a bad idea to lie to an INTP. This makes it ironic that INTPs’ word should always be taken with a grain of salt – it’s not that they are dishonest, but people with the INTP personality type tend to share thoughts that are not fully developed, using others as a sounding board for ideas and theories in a debate against themselves rather than as actual conversation partners.

This may make them appear unreliable, but in reality no one is more enthusiastic and capable of spotting a problem, drilling through the endless factors and details that encompass the issue and developing a unique and viable solution than INTPs – just don’t expect punctual progress reports. People who share the INTP personality type aren’t interested in practical, day-to-day activities and maintenance, but when they find an environment where their creative genius and potential can be expressed, there is no limit to the time and energy INTPs will expend in developing an insightful and unbiased solution.

Wisdom Begins in Wonder

They may appear to drift about in an unending daydream, but INTPs’ thought process is unceasing, and their minds buzz with ideas from the moment they wake up. This constant thinking can have the effect of making them look pensive and detached, as they are often conducting full-fledged debates in their own heads, but really INTPs are quite relaxed and friendly when they are with people they know, or who share their interests. However, this can be replaced by overwhelming shyness when INTP personalities are among unfamiliar faces, and friendly banter can quickly become combative if they believe their logical conclusions or theories are being criticized.

When INTPs are particularly excited, the conversation can border on incoherence as they try to explain the daisy-chain of logical conclusions that led to the formation of their latest idea. Oftentimes, INTPs will opt to simply move on from a topic before it’s ever understood what they were trying to say, rather than try to lay things out in plain terms.

The reverse can also be true when people explain their thought processes to INTPs in terms of subjectivity and feeling. Imagine an immensely complicated clockwork, taking in every fact and idea possible, processing them with a heavy dose of creative reasoning and returning the most logically sound results available – this is how the INTP mind works, and this type has little tolerance for an emotional monkey-wrench jamming their machines.

Let Those Who Would Move the World First Move Themselves

Further, with Thinking (T) as one of their governing traits, INTPs are unlikely to understand emotional complaints at all, and their friends won’t find a bedrock of emotional support in them. People with the INTP personality type would much rather make a series of logical suggestions for how to resolve the underlying issue, a perspective that is not always welcomed by their Feeling (F) companions. This will likely extend to most social conventions and goals as well, like planning dinners and getting married, as INTPs are far more concerned with originality and efficient results.

The one thing that really holds INTPs back is their restless and pervasive fear of failure. INTP personalities are so prone to reassessing their own thoughts and theories, worrying that they’ve missed some critical piece of the puzzle, that they can stagnate, lost in an intangible world where their thoughts are never truly applied. Overcoming this self-doubt stands as the greatest challenge INTPs are likely to face, but the intellectual gifts – big and small – bestowed on the world when they do makes it worth the fight.

I wish there was a Lord of the Rings character to represent me, but I guess telling everyone that I have the same personality as Rene Descartes, Bill Gates, Isaac Newton, Blaise Pascal and Albert Einstein is pretty impressive anyways.

If anyone from Tolkien's work was a Logician, it would be Sauron. He is.. Creative, Highly intelligent, egoistic, and defiantly an introvert. The strength of mind it takes to develop complex battle strategies is telling.

I personally think that INTP is the most confusing personality type to have because most of us are have our own unique world we create in our heads. I think INTP's (like me) tend to stay in this imagery world more then the physical because everything makes more sense in there then society. I think it's when we try to translate this intangible language/reality into easy to understand simplified terms for the everyday Joe we run into trouble. I found that for me personally, I need time to process my feeling and thoughts. I wait until I can explain something in simple terms before speaking because if I don't wait for my emotions to translate I literally can't explain it at all. But many people choose not to take the time to understand an INTP's personal ideology and/or mind which not only makes us frustrated with that person, but with everyone else who seems to share that person's perspective. So in response to being so misunderstood, I think that's why we favor solitude and going against social norms. All of us INTP think with the same mind set, which is a relief, but I think being an INTP is so hard because I seems like we have to work so much harder then most to translate this reality into something we can grasp. Many other people can't see this internal struggle or are unable to grasp our complex perspective on reality making it so hard to understand and fit into the world in which we live.
REMEMBER: This is just my opinion (I hope it made sense to someone lol). Please take into account that every INTP's mind different and this is only from how I see it. Lastly, thank you so much for read hope you got something out of this!

I completely agree, especially the world inside our heads and the difficulty in translating this into language that is understandable by others. I find that I usually just pretend to be a different person around others so that I don't get frustrated with people misunderstanding my intent.

Oh thank you I thought I was alone! Nice to finally know I'm not crazy because of this one thing that happened with my mother. So I'm writing this short story about a girl who has a mind like me and uses it to escapes a sad situation by going to this internal utopia. When I took my mom about this girl and story I'm currently writing, she said this about my character (which I quote) "Honey...if I'm honest with you...she [the girl] sounds pretty schizophrenic." Like what the h*ll. This was my OWN MOTHER who said this. So it's really really really relieving to know I don't need to see any doctor anytime soon, but to instead embrace my beautiful unique mind.

No one in your family will ever understand. This is why the internet can be such a truly wonderful place. People who thought they were isolated can come together and do whatever it is they want with their newfound connections. Like celebrate, for the more emotional people. Or discuss and debate, for people like us.
There were so few things I didn't 100% agree with in the description for us they are not even worth mentioning. The hours they put into compiling data are truly staggering. The results, incredible. Thank you for sharing your story, and do not worry, the people here are more than willing to talk, comment, and leave their ideas and opinions. It's who we are.

This is going to seem a bit controversial for some people, but I wish the world would be separated into all the different personalities. When meeting another INTP, it was the most coherent conversation I ever had. I was so used to having to explain my thoughts over and over again, so it was absolutely heartwarming to find someone else using the same logic I thought only I had...

I agree though eventually I feel like we'll get bored of each other...
And if not, it's nice to have diversity though I'd LOVE to know more INTPs, I'd even welcome ANY introvert (ok, maybe not ALL) my grade is full of extroverts. The one introvert in my class is like the person who I talk to and she goes like, "I know right", we understand each other. She's either an architect or a logician so that's another reason why we understand each other.

Simply the fact that you thought all of that up and decided to go on a paragraph-long rant about it proves that you are definitely INTP. Also, to add to what you said, I find the most frustrating part is the fact that nobody really cares about those little complexities that we find so absolutely intriguing, and often times I really wish I had an INTP friend who I could spend hours on end talking about those little irregularities that nobody else cares to notice or even take into account in their everyday lives. I often find myself trying to talk to my friends about such stuff, and simply being told that nobody cares, or that what I am saying makes no sense, or discreetly being told to be quite.

Don't worry it makes sense. I agree with a large portion of what you stated. It just is saddening that other personality types can't often understand us or even want to try. Due to how some of us INTP's are treated by others is probably a main factor as to why the trait of being introverted is strong in us, and even in some gets stronger. Or rather more...obvious to notice.
Also quick question for those reading this particular comment. Yes! Hello other person.
Is it just me that has a strong inclination to adapt or form my own society? To make a utopia of sorts? To form a strong minded community of individuals together that can be by others like them and over -all have an easier time to express previously pushed back topics and opinions/ideas together? To explore the unknown quicker?
Ah I hope I'm not the only one. Have a lovely day to whoever may be reading this.

Just imagine: Elite schools for logicans (and some compatible personalities)! It would be awesome and effective! Every person could reach full potential! (But i think we still need contact with others...) But the problem... Likely 3% logicans in the complete world... I like being unique but this makes a school for Logicans really unlikely...

It made a whole lot of sense to me. (Fellow Logician {why would any other personality read the comments under a personality that isn’t theirs anyway}) I very much so agree with you. I would like to say something that could potentially be an extreme benefactor for the logician mind. I had a very hard time focusing on my surroundings as a kid. I didn’t like talking with people either because it just took me away from my thoughts and almost hurt my head to have to focus on something outside of my own thoughts. So, with all that being said I’ve learned that sitting perfectly still in a quiet room and purposely focusing on the room and the sound of stillness really helped get myself to focus more on my surroundings. It even became a great way for me to ease and liberate my own brain. I hope someone sees this and benefits from it. (That’s why I took the time to type all this out. Or else it would’ve been for nothing

The Logician personality type is fairly rare, making up only three percent of the population, which is definitely a good thing for them, as there’s nothing they’d be more unhappy about than being “common”.
Already the most anyone has understood me

I was skimming the article, and then I wondered, for the Architects there was a percentage and it said they were rare. That would be one reason why I wouldn't mind to be an Architect, it's similar to my personality and it's unique! Then I went back to the top of the Logician article and found that (what you just wrote) and I was like "Yes!"